BOSTON – Cornell is trying to find some consistency with non-league play winding down. That’s not a good place to be, and after a 70-57 loss at Boston University on Saturday the issues the Big Red face seem just a little more noticeable.
One look at the box score tells much of the story. The Big Red had a nice 48-24 bench scoring advantage, but undoing that is the fact that their starters scored just nine points and had 12 rebounds. The starters also didn’t hand out a single assist on the afternoon. Eight different Big Red players have started at least one game this season, and only two have started all 12 games. Clearly, head coach Bill Courtney and his staff are trying to find the right combination.
“We’re trying to find consistency, trying to find which guys are going to be there every game,” said Courtney, who added that the play “goes half to half” with some players and noted a few players on Saturday did just that for his team in playing one good half.
The Big Red started out all right on Saturday, although there was some difficulty in the opening minutes. Before long, though, they had the lead and at one point were up by eight in the first half. Early in the second is when it all changed, and after it was a back-and-forth game for a few minutes, a decisive 13-0 run by Boston University changed the game for good as the Terriers took a 57-46 lead.
Turnovers have been the biggest problem to this point, as the Big Red give the ball away nearly 16 times a game. On Saturday, they had four turnovers by the first media timeout, then came alive once they stopped giving it away. They became a problem again in the second half, and as has tended to happen Boston University made them pay. The Big Red finished with 19 turnovers, which Boston University cashed in for 24 points.
“That’s our biggest bugaboo,” said Courtney. “We don’t do a good job of taking care of it. We’re just really not valuing the basketball like we should be, and it’s really hurt us.”
For this team, taking care of the ball is paramount since they don’t have much room for error. They don’t shoot well and the defense hasn’t been good enough to win with limited offense, and they also haven’t been winning on the backboards. In particular, Johnathan Gray and Nolan Cressler have been in a funk of late, and those are two players they count on heavily. Over the last four games, Gray is 8-32 from the field and Cressler is 2-22, missing all ten from long range.
“It becomes an issue when your best two guys can’t make shots,” said Courtney. “We’re just trying to find ourselves and hoping we can do it before league play.”
Errick Peck is clearly still finding his way back. Two years ago, he appeared on the verge of becoming an All-Ivy candidate with a nice jump from freshman to sophomore year. Then he missed last season with a knee injury, and thus far his numbers look nothing like they did two years ago. Courtney said he has moments in practice where he looks like the player many thought he could become and in some games, but like most on the team he hasn’t been able to put it all together.
In the meantime, Shonn Miller won the Ivy League’s Rookie of the Year last year and has had a good start this year to become the team’s top player. But on Saturday, Miller never really got going, and while eight points and 10 rebounds might seem like a decent stat line, he was never really a factor in the game.
Cornell has at times shown the potential to be a sleeper in the Ivy League, but those haven’t been frequent enough to get more wins. As guard Devin Cherry noted, “We have stretches where we show that we’re a really good team.” But they need more than stretches, especially at this point in the season.
The Big Red are in the middle of a five-game road swing, with three more non-league games left after that. There is still time left to find some consistency, but it is running out and the Big Red are not getting much to show for their efforts with a 4-8 record. There are some tough games in the mix as well, so trying to win games while finding that consistency is an added challenge.
